Critic Reviews
| 100 |
Salon.com
Requiem, the new film from German director Hans-Christian Schmid, is absolutely astonishing. See it if you possibly can.
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| 91 |
Entertainment Weekly
Requiem is drawn from an incident that was also the basis for last year's demon-seed hit, "The Exorcism of Emily Rose."
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| 90 |
Variety
Stunningly played story of faith vs. family.
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| 88 |
Chicago Tribune
An exorcism movie for the rest of us, the gripping German drama Requiem contains not a single special effect. It doesn't need one. It has terrific actors fully invested in a casual-seeming, docudramatic brand of storytelling, notably Sandra Hueller.
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| 88 |
TV Guide
Bogumil Godfrejow's raw cinematography and Huller's poignant, close-to-the-bone performance transform what might have been a morbid curiosity into an entirely enthralling, quietly terrifying experience.
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| 80 |
Los Angeles Times
In its subtlety, complexity and dexterity, Requiem is a notably original work.
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| 80 |
Empire
Helen O'Hara
A tragic tale of teen rebellion and misplaced faith, this is a sober and sobering account of a young girl's untimely end, made enthralling by great performances and restrained direction.
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| 80 |
The New York Times
Requiem is a moving study of a tortured young woman more at peace with medieval ritual than with modern medicine.
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| 80 |
Village Voice
Jim Ridley
Sandra Hüller, a young German stage actress making a harrowing feature debut, invests Michaela's terrified, possibly schizophrenic outbursts with unholy conviction.
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| 80 |
The Hollywood Reporter
While "Exorcism" focused on a murder-trial battle between the priest and a prosecutor, Schmid's film beautifully details the behavior, events and socio-religious pressures that lead to the decision to perform such an extreme ritual.
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| 75 |
The Onion (A.V. Club)
Though its heroine's mysterious seizures and blackouts are terrifying in the way they undermine her quest for self-determination, Requiem isn't a horror movie so much as a thwarted coming-of-age story, like "Carrie" without the bloody reckoning.
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| 75 |
New York Post
Anybody who's ever seen a movie about exorcism knows that, in cases like this, the first thing to do is call 1-800-PRIEST, which the family does.
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| 50 |
Chicago Reader
Martin Rubin
The nonsensationalistic results are also somewhat ho-hum--and oddly less convincing than Friedkin's lurid mess, let alone the elegant satanism sagas of Tourneur and Polanski.
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